Andrew Ross - Oceanside Marine Nature Study Area

Andrew Ross - Oceanside Marine Nature Study Area

This summer I volunteered at the Oceanside Marine Nature Study Area. It is not my first summer working at the Marine Study Area with the head biologist Mike Farina. I found the job even more rewarding after the second time I worked there. After working there the previous year I knew the routine from the start. Everybody I worked with from last year was there again this year and they were all very happy to see me again and appreciative of my volunteer work. Among the many different jobs I did to help out at Oceanside Marine Nature Study Area, I landscaped, including weeding the trails and cutting branches off trees. I helped fish food for animals they keep on display during the winter, and even caught an eel. I also helped with handyman jobs such as helping Mike Farina install a new, bigger window for a display showing a bird feeder outside.

Since I had worked there the year before, Mike also gave me jobs requiring more responsibilities. One of the most interesting jobs was taking care of a captured crow that someone had dropped off at the Marine Nature Study Area. The bird must have been raised in captivity because it had no fear of humans, which made my job of feeding the bird much easier. Just handling the bird helped me feel more comfortable with animals. When I first began to feed him I was anxious that it would bite. After getting used to the bird I began to lose anxiety of him nipping and I’d put whatever nuts or fruit he was eating right in his throat. It gave me a new found confidence that I didn’t have since I grew up with few pets of my own and never experienced playing with a dog or a bird, an animal that may nip in a playful manner.

I remember helping Mike with a science experiment. He was testing the pH, oxygen, and carbon levels with all sorts of acids and chemicals that only a scientist would use. This was done to make sure that the water and soil had the correct levels needed for healthy grass and to check the pollution in the water. I had also helped Mike conduct an experiment to see if muscles and clams were dying off in the bay, and whether the clam population could be rehabilitated. Mike had a large cage tied to the side of a walking bridge that was fully submerged in the water. The cage was filled with clams and mussels last year when I was working there. He took out the cage with me and we went through the clams to see how many had survived in the water. There were a good amount of clams dead but the majority lived which was a reassuring sign that the rehabilitation of the clam population on Long Island is possible. Environmental laws and enforcement is helping clean up our waters, which is in everyone’s best interest.

I feel that working at the Marine Nature Study Area has allowed me to gain a significant insight on our 7^th principle, respect the interdependent web of all existence. If clams can make a bounce back in population, it will stabilize the local food chain. Clams also help filtrate our waters of some pollutants, which would be very helpful in cleaning up our shores. It may also recreate a large workforce of claimers and fisherman along our Long Island waters, as long as it’s being done responsibly. Having even a small part in the eventual rehabilitation of clams in an area where the populations were at a critical low 10 years ago, makes me feel like I am truly making a positive impact on our environment. Seeing a success story such as this makes me feel that there is even more I can do to help reverse the damage humans have done to our environment and the interdependent web of all existence.

Laura Santiago - Working with the Center for the Women of New York

I work at the Center for the Women of New York. It consists of a small donated office space in Queens Borough Hall. This non-profit offers a list of great services including; a Job Club, a Medical Secretary Class, and a free Legal Clinic for people who need advice. The Women that work here are mostly paid by AARP or volunteers, and they each have certain jobs they have to do which are specific to each of them. However, on top of the work they need to do there are also jobs that anybody can do, and that’s where I come in. I help by answering phones, taking messages, updating contact lists, and doing odd-job things whenever somebody needs something. It’s nice to be able to help with the work load here, since most of the employees aren’t here as much as I am.

I’ve learned a lot about what needs to be done to run a non-profit since I started working here. Last summer my SAF experience was completely different, I worked at a wildlife refuge. This summer, working in an office at the heart of a non-profit has really taught me what goes on behind the scenes. It has been amazing to watch my supervisor, Ann Jawin, and all the amazing work she does here. She founded the Center for the Women of New York and has been running it, unpaid, since 1987. Not only did I lean what dedication really is, but I’ve also been amazed and inspired by her drive to help complete strangers.

Ann included me and my fellow intern, Abbey, in writing a grant application. She walked us through the application and told us what needed to be done, and then let us write out a draft. She then looked it over, made notes, and sent us back to the drawing board. It was surprisingly fun to write, and I think it’s a very important skill to have. I knew what a grant was at the beginning of the experience, but the whole thing demystified it for me. It’s really not as intense as I thought it would be.

Being a Unitarian Universalist has taught me to accept all people, and to help those who are in need. Working here at the Center for the Women of New York has been a great opportunity to be a part of an organization that does great things for people who need help. It has been very satisfying to be a part of this organization, and to really see just how much ordinary every-day people can make a difference.